Cat or Dog?

No, this post isn't about which one I should keep and which I should get rid of! I love them both too much to ever get rid of their adorable faces! I mean, seriously? Have you seen them? No!? Well, let me show you..

Roxie

Cosmo

I was catching up on some of the blogs I follow and came across this post by Carrots 'n' Cake where she referred to herself as a "cat runner." I have never heard of this term before, so I linked back to the blog where she first talked about it to see what she meant. I also found this post on RunnersWorld.com that references the same thing and also addresses some other issues.

Runners are like cats and dogs, says Adam Krajchir, founder and director of Race with Purpose and head coach for New York Road Runners' Team for Kids. Cat runners just want to be left alone to do their thing. Dog runners want to be social. You may be cat or dog on any given day, but it's never fun being a cat stuck in a dog world, especially if you're trapped on the treadmill.

I think I fall somewhere in between the two.

I am a cat runner: When I'm running, I don't necessarily want to talk to you. I want to listen to my music, breath, and get into a groove.

I am a dog runner: I don't like doing things by myself.

I have always been the type of person that would only do something if someone else was doing it too. If I were running, I would make plans to run with someone and then pace at their pace. If I were going to the gym, I would call someone and make plans to go to the gym. If they backed out, I did too. This was the case until I finally reached a point where I decided I couldn't and wasn't going to allow someone to dictate my health. Because lets be honest, that's what I was doing. I needed to lose weight and the truth was they weren't going to lose a pound for me. Only I could do that. 

So now that I'm wearing my "big girl pants," I go to the gym by myself and run by myself. I still make plans to  do these things with my friends but I no longer solely rely on them to get my butt to do it.

Now... lets move on to Thursdays run and grub!

Breakfast

If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a smoothie girl in the morning. It's easy to make and then head out the door. I like to sleep so I don't leave a lot of time to cook something and sit down to eat it.

Thursday's smoothie contained Naked coconut water, blueberries, orange, spinach, parsley, and PlantFusion protein powder.

Lunch

I had another bowl of soup.. I'm so boring when it comes to lunches but it's cheap! I think I'll make something different for next week, but don't hold me to it.

Snack

I had some Nut-Thins, hummus, and a couple slices of cheese for my snack.

Activity

Another day. Another run. After the storms that came through on Wednesday, I wasn't sure if the Rivergreenway would be open or not. It tends to flood when we have heavy rain. But I was in luck! It was open and it was a cool 78 degrees. 

I met up with Erika again but sadly had to leave her pretty early on. She warned me going out that she wasn't feeling the greatest so I told her that she could turn around early and I would catch back up. Well, being the mama bear that she is, she was worried when I had turn some corners and she couldn't see me anymore. So she kept runnin' until she saw me. 

At some point on the way back I had to stop. My hamstrings and calves were getting tight and I needed to loosen them up so I could pick the pace back up. So I stopped in a grassy, shaded area to stretch out.

I got to the end of the trail and waited for Erika to finish. Please note the sign on the left. I was not kidding about the flooding.

Even though we were at the same trail doing the same amount of time, I ended up doing about 3.2 miles on this run. The last run was 2.8. I think I ran a little faster on this run going out so I had a longer way to go back. But I'm ok with that!

Dinner

For dinner I combined some ground turkey, red pepper, corn, and black beans and added some medium salsa for some spice.

Dessert
For dessert I grabbed a "healthy" brownie. I think fresh is always best and I love warm brownies so I popped it in the microwave for 15-20 seconds.

Question: Are you a dog or a cat? Tell me why in the comments below. I'd love to hear from you! :)

Shin Splint Shopping Spree

Tuesday started off with a another green smoothie. I put some Naked coconut water, pineapple, strawberries, parsley, romaine lettuce, and a scoop of PlantFusion protein powder in my Ninja blender until it was smooth.

I had a bowl of chicken-vegetable soup for lunch while I caught up on some blogs, read some articles on various health magazine websites, did some pinning on Pinterest, and finally purchased a pair of compression socks from Zoot.com.

Aren't they cool?! I really had to restrain myself from buying another pair (in a different color, of course!) because these were $60! They are a little on the pricey side but if they're going to help, it's worth a shot right?

I had an afternoon snack of some Wholly Guacamole and almond nut-thins. They were out of the 100 calorie packs at my local Kroger, so we had to buy the regular package. The downside to this is that I have to measure it out and it starts turning brown by time I'm ready to eat it. Why do things have to turn brown? And I think whoever said lemon juice helps delay this process was off their rocker.

While looking over the Health & Fitness section of Pinterest, I came across some pins of KT Tape for shin splints. I have seen many runners using tape but I was never sure what the use was for it, so I decided to look into it. From their website:

Need support that will endure multiple lighter workouts? Then original KT TAPE is for you. It provides targeted pain relief and will stay in place through multiple workouts for up to 3 days, through daily showers, humidity, cold, even in the pool.

Each box comes with 20 precut strips of tape on a roll and a quick start guide with step-by-step instructions for the most common injuries.

It had a video on how to apply the tape for shin splints and posterior shin splints. I read some more information on their website and used their store locator and found out that a local Dick's Sporting Goods store sold it. I decided that since I will be waiting a few days for my compression socks that I would swing by Dick's and pick up some KT Tape.

I got home, taped up, and headed out to for my run/walk. Again, I made some slight changes to the plan for this week.

Week 3

Tuesday 6/11 - Thursday 6/13

• 2 minute warm up
• 2 minute run x 1 minute walk. Repeat 9 times.
• 1 minute cool down

Saturday 6/15 - 4 miles

My friend, Erika, joined me for my run. Here we are pre-run.

We did our run on the Rivergreenway. It was 83 degrees out but it didn't feel as humid as it normally does and I actually thought it felt more like the high 70's. Erika disagrees but she is always hot, so what does she know?... KIDDING!

I was really pleased with these splits. I sadly had to leave Erika a little bit behind as she is still nursing a bruised/swollen/popping foot and has asthma. I hate doing that but she encourages me to move on. (I think she secretly likes the view. ;) )

It seemed that we finished our run just in time as it seemed that a storm was rolling in. I heard some thunder and saw some lightening in the distance.

We did some stretches and I headed home shortly after. My legs were on fire. I'm not sure if it was because I was running faster than I have in the past or what. So when I got home I did some more stretches, and then rolled out my shins and calves. I wanted to leave the KT Tape on as long as I could (their website says you can leave it on for up to three days) to help with recovery.

I had also read that compression socks aid in recovery helping remove the lactic acid from your muscles. Some of the websites I had checked out actually sold a compression sock just for recovery. I was just going to put on some softball socks to cover the tape and keep my calves warm but then a light bulb went off! I remembered that I had medical compression socks from when I had surgery two years ago. I figured that these were just the same, if not better, than a sport recovery compression sock - plus, they are full leg compression socks and covered my quads too!

After I relaxed a for a few minutes, I cooked up some chicken fajitas made with chicken, peppers and onions. I served it with a scoop of rice, lettuce, salsa, and corn tortillas. It was delicious!

And then for dessert, I tried a "healthy" brownie recipe which turned out WAY better than I had expected! Look out for the recipe and directions in the future!

Question: What kind of "healthy" treats/desserts do you make and enjoy? Leave your comments below! :)

Flash Floods and Fajitas

Saturday was my first "long" run. Although it wasn't exactly long, it was the first run that wasn't planned as a run/walk. I decided that I was going to see if I could do the full 3 miles without walking any significant amount.

Erika and I met at Kreager Park to do our run. The initial plan was to do it together but as I warmed up I was picking up my pace and she was falling behind. I hate leaving people when we planned to do something together but I needed to see how I could perform over the three miles. I walked a tad bit to see which way I was supposed to go because I hadn't run at that park before.

Additionally, our run didn't go exactly to plan due to the huge storm we had on Friday night. The storm caused a flash flood warning as some places received 5-7 inches of rain in an hour. This caused part of our planned course to go under water. So we had a few spots that we did an out and back so our tennis shoes didn't get soaked.





Overall, I was really pleased with the run. My average pace was literally just under 11minutes/mile. I am hopeful that as I continue to train and put in my time/miles that I will see a faster pace.

After our run, we headed to Bob Evans for some well deserved breakfast. As always, our time was filled with many bizarre conversations and laughs. I headed home soon after to clean up and take a nap.

After my nap, I decided to get my meal planning on. I logged onto my Plan to Eat account and planned out my meals for the week and dinner that night. I had been wanting to try this Fajita-Ranch Chicken Wraps I had found earlier in the week and couldn't stop thinking about!



The recipe was super easy to make. The only change I made was to use a gluten free wrap instead of a flour tortilla... and I poured myself a glass of wine to have with my dinner. I usually don't have wine around but the bottle caught my eye while I was shopping and it paired well with the dinner. Doesn't it look delicious?!

Running the Rivergreenway

Tuesday was an outdoor run and I'll be honest, I didn't want to go. I had called my friend Erika on my way home from work to see if she would want to join me. She didn't answer. So when I got home, instead of changing into my running gear, I laid on the couch and watched some TV. I really quite comfortable and had no intention of getting up. At about the time I was almost okay with skipping my run (this is not unusual for me) my phone rang. It was Erika! Yay! She agreed to go on a run with me. We decided we would hit the Rivergreenway.

The Rivergreenway Trail is a 24 mile long linear park in Fort Wayne and New Haven, Indiana. The trail is along the banks of the St. Marys, St. Joseph and Maumee Rivers. Much of the Rivergreenway has been funded by the State of Indiana and the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund. The Rivergreenway provides a great opportunity for recreation, fitness and conservation, as well as providing an alternative transportation network safely connecting the community.

My family used to ride our bikes on this trail when we were younger. I was never aware of how far we were actually going but I checked and it was about 4 miles - one way! It's crazy to think that when I was younger we would frequently ride 8 miles in a day.

Anyway, the original plan for the run was a 3 minute warm up followed by a 1 minute run and 2 minute walk repeated 8 times with a 1 minute cool down (not including stretching). We ended up going a little longer, and repeated the run/walk combo 10 times. I was synced to MapMyRun.com during the run and here is a little snap shot of the trail and some other cool things.

The bright green on the map shows the trail, the red is where we did our out and back. You can also view my pace per mile to the right of the map, and below the map shows the elevation compared to my pace at that time. Pretty cool, huh?

After our run, we did some stretching and chatting so by time we departed the park it was past 8pm. Passing the fast food chains was tempting, but I went to our local Kroger and picked up some sushi for dinner and some other goodies.

Question: Do you use MapMyRun.com? If so, tell me about it! What do you like about it or dislike?